Vergil's Aeneid: A Poem of Grief and LoveFor more than a century, critics of the "Aeneid" have assumed that all or most of its episodes must propound something about Aeneas and his mission to found the Roman people, and through them about Rome and Augustus; whether that is their positive aspects, or their brutality and destructiveness, or the contrast between the public "voice" of their achievements and the private "voice" of the suffering they cause. This book argues that this assumption is wrong; the "Aeneid"'s main purpose was to present a series of emotionally moving episodes, especially pathetic ones. This book shows that the "Aeneid" makes more sense when regarded primarily as a series of emotion-arousing episodes than as expressing a pro-Aeneas, anti-Aeneas or two voices message. That is how it was regarded into the nineteenth century and that is what the ancient Greeks and Romans assumed was the main purpose of literature. |
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Contents
selfdestructive love | 14 |
Modern interpretations of the NisusEuryalus | 24 |
CONTENTS | 30 |
Ancient and modern literary attitudes | 31 |
The poem of grief and love | 61 |
The gods in the DidoAeneas episode and | 124 |
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Common terms and phrases
actions admired Aeneas Aeneid Aeschylus amore ancient ancient Greeks approach argue Aristotle asserts assumed attack attempts attributes Austin basic beginning beloved Book calls Catullus cause chapter characters common constantly contemporaries contrast critics culture death demonstrates described devoted Dido episode Dido's discussed divine emotional epic especially Euripides example explain expresses fact Farron feelings followed gives gods Greek tragedy hero Homer ignore Iliad important influence intense interest interpretation introduced involved ISBN 90 Italy lack later leave lines literary literature lover meaning mentions misery mission modern critics moral nature Nisus and Euryalus observes obvious Ovid Oxford passage passion pathos pity play plot poem poet Poetics poetry points praise present Propertius quoted readers reason refers regarded Roman Rome says scholars seems Servius similar situation speech story suffering sympathy tion tragic Trojans Troy true typical unity Vergil voices
References to this book
Statius and Epic Games: Sport, Politics and Poetics in the Thebaid Helen Lovatt Limited preview - 2005 |
Bibliographic information
| Title | Vergil's Aeneid: A Poem of Grief and Love Mnemosyne (Brill), Bibliotheca classica Batava: Supplementum Volume 122 of Mnemosyne Bibliotheca Classica Batava Volume 122 of Mnemosyne: Suppl Volume 122 of Mnemosyne: Supplementum |
| Author | Steven Farron |
| Publisher | BRILL, 1993 |
| ISBN | 9004096612, 9789004096615 |
| Length | 174 pages |
| Subjects | › Literary Criticism / Ancient & Classical |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |